Ignis Flavus
Ignis Flavus, Lord Chancellor of Azhahad Age:32 Affiliations: The Assembly, Chancery of Azhahad, Azhahad's Maintenance of Improved Sanitation Systen Incorporated Physical description: Ignis Flavus is a man in his thirty, looking a little younger, with for only notable characteristics a mane of messy brown hair and a pair of deep green eyes that often give the impression of glowing from an inner light. Above average in height, his leanness and prominent cheekbones often leave people to wonder if he eats enough, a fact that make the ones who know his (rather gluttonous) eating habits laugh When dressed for his office of Lord Chancellor of Azhahad, Flavus wears the mandatory dark, ornamented mantle and white-fur-brimmed black tricorn hat, accompanied by the staff symbolizing his charge. In his free time, Flavus's clothes are an extravagant mix of garish items from disparate places and time, chosen to accommodate his rather peculiar tastes. He seems particularly fond of ensembles composed of different hues of golden and purple. Personality: At first glance, Ignis Flavus could appear as an easy-going fool with a hedonist streak and too much time for himself. The reality is somewhat different: Flavus is a man determined to enjoy every second of his life, and working hard to do so. Cunning and calculating when he wants to be, he is dedicated to making the City of Ashes a better place, and is convinced his office of Lord Chancellor is part of the key to achieve this objective. Otherwise, he is friendly with anyone who didn't give him reasons to not, and almost continually cheerful. Despite his happy dispositions, Flavus is neither a fool nor a deluded. He knows the reality of living in the City more than many people, making him appealed by the harshness of many people's lives and disgusted by the horrors some of their fellow sentient beings inflict to others. He describes himself as both a romantic and a cynic, as he is rarely surprised by the conduct of others, but often disappointed. Another trait of his, probably due to his childhood, is his suspicious outlook at arbitrary morality systems and religions, and by extension of religious figures. For him , the only fact is that all sentient beings fight for their happiness, and that there is no objective authority that one could refer to know what's good or bad, only subjective ones. The Lord Chancellor is often described as widely eccentric, and given his peculiar tastes in all domains, it is not hard to see why. Between his garish clothes, the exotic curios he like to have around and the strange food he's so fond of, participating in an event planned by him is a rather peculiar experience, if not an unwelcome one. A rumor pretends he acts this way deliberately to weird people out, but the truth of it was never established. History: The Lord Chancellor's life, perhaps surprisingly seeing his current station, had a rather rocky start. Born in the Sprawl and raised by the Cult of the Dawn Sperpent along with a dozen of other children, the young Ignis Flavus never knew anything about his parents, other than they were members of said sect. It is there he was given his antiquated and laughable name. His first memories are of fanatics trying to teach their creeds in dark rooms, their voices alternating between covetous whispers and maniacal shoutings. But luck was on Ignis's side, and during the tenth year of his life, the Grand Master of the cult died of a sudden disease. This death lead to a real civil war among the higher-ups to decide who would be the next Grand Master, soon followed by an intense conflict with the lower members of the sects battling for higher position, and everything spiraled out of control.The summer solstice feast, one of the cult's most sacred ceremonies, resulted in the majority of the adult members' deaths, most of them poisoned, some others by mutually fatal blows and the last few by suicide after they realised they destroyed the cult they fought to control and offended their divinity in the process. The children, once they found the dead bodies of their leaders and tormentors, quickly agreed to flee and never see each other again. While others sought distant horizons, the young Flavus decided to stay in the City of Ashes, ready to climb its social ladder. That's how, at the enlightened age of eleven, he entered an apprenticeship of clerk at the Chancery of Azhahad, institution that would be his home for more than the two-third of his life. He spent the next decade working, learning, dealing with every aspect of Azhahad's bureaucracy and earning progressively prestigious positions. But his career really took a turn to the greater when, as Director of the Office of Succession Rights of Azhahad's Protectorates, he managed to settle a dispute over contested inheritance between two minor noble families in a manner that pleased both parties, avoiding a particularly nasty and costly legal battle that would have dragged the two belligerents on the ground for years.Grateful for his service, the heads of the families invited him to the Skyward Orchid and introduced him to its customers, many of which later became friends, business relations and useful contacts, and his superiors, please by his efficiency, started to pile up work and responsibilities on him. At the age of twenty-nine, he was given the post of Head Administrator of the Market District, a role he proved to have earned. One year ago, seeing that the health of Lord Dimmesbright, who had been Lord Chancellor for more than half a century, finally forced him to retire, Flavus decided it was time to aim high. He presented his candidature to the assembly, fully supported by the network of friends and contacts he acquired over the years of worldly life. Since none of the other contenders had his experience, reputation or relations, he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Azhahad. His friends were overjoyed to have an ally in such a position of power, while the other Assemblymen were simply happy to have someone young, with a reputation of efficiency, to break from the decades of near-complacency of Dimmesbright's office. Advantages: Lord Chancellor of Azhahad (Status II): The Lord Chancellor is the main administrator and bureaucrat of the City of Ashes. Charged to turns the decisions of the Assembly into laws and to apply them, this office wields considerable powers and responsibilities. Budgets, taxes, appointments of officials, evaluations and inspections: all are duties of the Chancery of Azhahad, and, by extantion, of the Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor of Azhahad, being a member of the Assembly, is part of the decision-making process. De facto, Ignis Flavus is an influential individual. ' Intelligence II:' Ignis Flavus possesses a cunning and imaginative mind, which is particularly useful when dealing with crisis or troublemakers Public Speaker II: Flavus is a know rhetorician, able to win over even the most narrow-minded individuals with his silver tongue. His talent with words, honed by his years spent at the Chancery and, later, at the Assembly, makes him a dangerous player in the political game of Azhahad, and even the ones who dislike the Lord Chancellor have to admit what he says is, sadly for them, really convincing. Status I: Ignis Flavus is the owner and chairman of the Azhahad's Maintenance of Improved Sanitation System Incorporated, the company in charge of five of the six Junction Stations of the Harbor District and of the sewers that are connected to them. Story Elements: The Great Penpusher Fire: A recent event that none the less marked the memories. Two years ago, a fire consumed numerous of Harbor District's most luxurious habitations, damaged other parts of the District (resulting notably in the destruction of many merchant ships that were caught in the flames before they could manage to flee) and resulted in the panick of hundreds of people before it could be extinguished. This fire takes its name from the fact that it started in the Harbor's Administration's building. All evidences pointed to an arson that went out of control, but the culprits were never identified.Some say that they died in the fire, others that they skipped town, but the most persistent rumors is that they were either killed by one of the Harbor's gang or made their leaders. Speculations on the use of magic to start or strenghten the fire were never proven, but never officially contradicted either. The Head Administrators: Direct subordinates of the Lord Chancellor and handpicked by him, the Head Administrators are tasked with the supervising of one of Azhahad's districts each, and are required to assist the Lord Chancellor in every duty that take place on their territories. The current Head Administrators are, by order of seniority, Earl Gideon Cogs of the Crater District, Rimoneli Firido of the Caravane City, Sebastian LeMage of the Sprawl and Ibin Nab Sur of the Market District. The Head Administrator of Harbor District position has been held by seventeen different persons during the last twenty years, and is currently unoccupied. Since all of their recent predecessors found either a quick death or a wise retirement, the holders of the "Head Administrator of Harbor District" title are nicknamed "Dead-Man-Walking" by the Harbor's inhabitants and other cynics.